James Brown

VX29288 James Alexander Brown served in the 1st Division Provost Company. The search for him was rather involved and is best explained by having a look at the research notes Yuku. Once again Bill and the Yuku team put this one together.

The medals are in as issued condition and have never been mounted for waring. The came to me via the Directorate of Honours and Awards having first been handed in to the Victorian Police by a recycling company.

These medals will be returned to James' nephew.

The returned medal tally is now 657.

McCarthy

2894 PTE Theodore John McCathy has a rather interesting service record. There is a bit more detail than usual including the results of his dental examination. It gets really interesting on page 24 where there is a copy of the telegram to his NOK advising that he had been repatriated as a prisoner of war. Unfortunately there is not a lot of detail about his capture and I suppose there might be something in the unit war diary. I come across very few POW medals so it is rather special to see this one head back to the family.

The returned medal tally is now 652.

243 PTE Murray Thomas

PTE Thomas served in the Machine Gun Corps and deployed to France. He was wounded in action and selected for officer training but was returned to his unit. He returned to Australia in 1919.
The returned medal tally is now 651.

McPherson update

This story appeared in the Albert and Logan News Paper as a follow up to the McPherson return.

Suhr update

No sooner do I put the Suhr MM post on this blog in a hope to find some clues and the search is resolved. I've just spoken to Eric's nephew and the medal will be returned to the family in the very near future.
The medal returned tally is now 649.

DONALD RUSSELL MCPHERSON

One of my sources of lost medals is through a couple of mail centers in Brisbane. When a package opens in the sorting process and the contents can not be connected to a sender they are investigated by the mail centre staff. Two contacts I have are Jackie E and Pauline S.
Recently Pauline sent me the WWII group awarded to QX6676 DONALD RUSSELL MCPHERSON. I picked them up from the post office yesterday and put the name and number in to Google. To my surprise the first hit was a story about these medals being stolen in April from the daughter of McPherson.
It took me a bit of time to track down the reporter and the proper police station but that is all resolved.
The returned medal tally is now 648.

Eric Suhr

This is another occasion when I'm putting up a medal before we have resolved the search in the hope that exposure on the Internet might lead to a clue.
This is the Military Medal awarded to 11924 Eric James Suhr. He was a driver in the Army Service Corps and his MM was awarded for clearing wounded from a clearing station while under fire. The date of this action was 29/30 Aug 1918.
After the war Suhr returned to Melbourne where he was involved in a mechanic business with his father and brother. We know that in 1949 Suhr and his wife Betty Jean Suhr were living at Berfold, Castlemaine. There is also a bit of detail about his brothers and sisters that we are untangling, including a connection to a Miss Naomi Catherine Love who died on the 28 March 2004. Miss Love was the sister in law of Mildred Eileen Love(nee Suhr), the youngest sister of Eric James Suhr.

Corporal Thomas Michael LAHIFF

NX131474 Corporal Thomas Michael LAHIFF has proved to be a difficult man to track. Bill and Yuku really had to dig hard to track down a relative. Through electrol rolls, service records and BDM records we have located Lahiff's great grand nephew.
Lahiff died in 1978 and is buried at Botany Catholic Cemetery (now Eastern Suburbs memorial), where he joined his mother and his brother Joseph who died of phneumonia, while in hospital recovering from wounds recieved during WWI. Thomas' RSL Sub-Branch had to stepped in and pay for his funeral to excuse him a 'pauper's funeral', which truly is the greatest insult a nation can show to a soldier.
These medals are in as issued condition.
The returned medal tally is now 642.

Geer family medals

This afternoon I finalised a search which was very satisfying.

A little over a month ago I received several medal groups forwarded to me from the AWM with a request to try to locate the families. Two particular sets of medals intrigued me. The first was a WWI trio awarded to 572 John Geer, Ist Field Artillery Brigade, AIF. The second set was a WWII group of five awarded to 23740 John Edwin Geer RAN (know as Jack).

I was intrigued for several reasons. Firstly, John's number is rather low and as it turns out he enlisted in late August 1914. He arrived in Egypt in 1915 but was not sent to Gallipoli. He later saw service in France. Jack's RAN medals immediate stood out as the style of naming is quite different to Army medals. This can be seen in the picture. But most of all, it is uncommon to see a set awarded to father and son that are not still with the family.

I found a fair bit of information about the Geer family on a family tree website but not enough information to work out who was the closest relative by comparing names and initials in the White Pages.

The family tree site lead me to Jack's cousin on his mother's side of the family and when I spoke to him today I was more than a little surprised to discover that Jack is still alive. The only disappointment to me is that I didn't resolve this before Anzac Day 2010 so that the medals were back with the family for that remembrance. However, they'll have them for next year and many more to come.

The medal returned tally is now 640.

Neal Joseph O'Connor

The medals awarded to Q153041 Neal Joseph O'Connor were sent to me from the QLD RSL in 2008. These medals have never been mounted for wearing and are still in their original box off issue. Include with this group is O'Connor's returned from active service badge and one of his dog tags.
This is what Bill pieced together about Neal:

Neal was 19 when he enlisted in December 1941, a Photographer by trade it was only by relinquishing his trade that he was able to get to New Guinea (ND) and the 'actual' war. First sent home from NG due to a football injury to his knee, he was able to get back in 1944, it was during this second time in country that he contracted Cerebral Malaria, for which he was medivaced to Australia. His malaria would plague him from then on, leading to his premature death in 1948.

The returned medal tally is now 632.

Reginald John Holland

This is another one of Bill stories so here are his words:

Reginald John HOLLAND joins our August List, well his 4 medals do.
There are searches where the search is the unknown question, Reginald and his medals form the other side of the equation.
How did a the medals of a man living in Victoria (all his life) end up in a second hand shop in Adelaide, to be bought by a lady in 2000 or so as a present to her Husband, another ex digger.
Now the story gets interesting the lady died in 2004, her husband in 2006, and their son Michael HOLLOWAY 'inherited the medals' with the aim of returning them to the rightful owner, his first attempts were fruitless and as he admits he has been busy and just never got around to returning them.
So 'our' search started, been an interesting wander going nowhere, however I 'lucked' on to John's Son in law, Terry O'CONNOR and then the fun started trying to convince him that I had his father in laws medals, he was pretty sure I hadn't the family well actually John's grandson has the medals. So it has been a bit backward and forward since, however the medals are now back with the family. I have left it with them to work out how the returned medals ended up in Adelaide.

The medal returned tally is now 629.

British WWI Victory Medal - Pearson

When I first started researching lost medals I had a large number donated to me from the Queensland RSL State Branch. These medals had been handed in over many years and been kept in safe custody waiting to be researched. The original donation numbered about 20 medals of which one was a WWI Victory Medals awarded to MI-08623 PTE C.C. Pearson ASC.

Other than some very basic details about Pearson, I had no clues about him or his family. I made an educated guess that following WWI he immigrated to Australia so not knowing where he settled made it difficult to determine where to look for him. This name was one of several where the circumstance are very similar that is on my lost medal list.

This morning I was very surprised to receive an email from Bob Pearson who is the son of PTE Pearson. Bob has his father's 14/15 Star but never seen the other two medals that were awarded. Bob came across my entry about his father through a search of the Internet. This is a wonderful result.

The returned medal tally is now 625.

McNeilage

SX971 Ian George McNeilage was a gunner from Adeliade who enlisted early in WWII as can be seen by his low service number. He died in May 1941 and his family has been a little difficult to track down. This search tested all of Bill's abilities but he came through in the end.

The medal returned tally is now 624.

Henry Ernest Miller

3378 Henry Ernest Miller had what can only be described as an entertaining war. His service record details several offences of AWOL. He must have enjoyed himself while out on the town as there are details of the consequences of socialising with the local ladies. He was also wounded in action.

Originally posted to 15th Bn he later transferred to the Australian Army Medical Corps - Dental Service.

This medals was one of the very first that was donated to me by the Queensland RSL in 2001 so we have had it for some time.

The medal returned tally is now 622.

James Bruce - RAAF

37607 James Elliott Bruce served in the RAAF and was posted to Base Torpedo Unit. There is very little information available on him and the search kept hitting dead ends. Bill's persistence and a lot of help from the Yuku team ended up following the family tree right to Bruce's sister.

The medal has had a pretty hard life as can be seen in the photo.

The medal returned tally is now 621.

133 Charles Nelleman

133 PTE Charles Henry Nelleman was an original member of 25th Battalion. There was some details on the web that helped me put together a family tree including the name of Charles nephew. This nephew is listed in the White Pages so I thought I was close to solving this search. When I rang I was told that he had died about a year ago. However, I was provided the name and number of a closer relative which was just the clue I needed.

The returned medal tally is now 620.

Charles Alfred Heather

I sometimes get referrals from the most unlikely place. A couple of weeks ago I received an email at work telling me about a request in the Herald News Paper for any information about an AIF soldier. A lady had his memorial plaque and had run out of leads to locate his family.

I contacted the Herald and offered to help. A couple of days later the lady conducting the search dropped me a line with the number and name of the soldier. From there I found this information:

HEATHER, Private, CHARLES ALFRED, 850. 8th Bn. Australian Infantry, A.I.F. Killed in action 4th July 1915. Son of Edward John and Ada Main Heather, of 415, High St., Kew, Victoria, Australia. Native of Bournemouth, England. II. C. 28.

There was nothing in any of the archives of the contemporary papers to give me a clue and since Charles was not married there were no children to track down. It turned out his father's name was all I needed. I found one Internet reference to Edward John Heather which gave a name and number of a family member in Brisbane. I provided all this information to the lady with the plaque and sure enough it was the Right connection. Below is a photo of Heather's plaque.

The returned tally is now 619.

CAPT Geoffrey Kiddle RFA

This search has proved to be very intriguing. Geoffrey Kiddle was from a prominent Australian pioneering family. His father was a pastoralist who farmed land around the Culcairn region in southern NSW. His uncle was John Beacham Kiddle who was a leading Victorian lawyer of the late 19th century. Geoffrey's cousin was Margaret Loch Kiddle a leading academic and writer on early Australian society. Geoffrey had one sister, Margarite who later went on the marry Colonel Sir Henry Davis Foster MacGreagh who was the Judge Advocate General of the British Forces from 1934 to 1955. Neither Geoffrey or Margarite had children.
Prior to WWI Geoffrey joined the Indian Army and at the out break of war he was transferred to the Royal Field Artillery. He saw service in France and was injured and Mentioned in Dispatches on several occasions. He later fought in Mesopotamia where he died of disease in 1916, he is buried in the Basra War Cemetery. I have a fair bit of information about his education and war service using the archived text of the Argus news paper and the Melbourne Cricket Club WWI Honour Roll, which says:
'Born in 1882. From Walbundrie Station, Albury. Educated at Melbourne Grammar School and
Cumloden. Went to France with the Royal Field Artillery in the first Expeditionary Force from India. Wounded three times, losing the sight of one eye. Mentioned In Despatches several times. Sent to Mesopotamia to join the force for the relief of Kut-el-Amara. Following strenuous times of desperate fighting and excessive heat, he died of illness in the British General Hospital at Basra on July 29, 1916.'
Indeed, there is so much information available I even found that his assets were valued at £43,160 when he died. A reasonable amount in 1916.
Other newspaper articles lead me to follow the family line of John Kiddle who had four children; Margaret, Lewis, Elizabeth and Ian. Margaret didn't marry and died of a kidney disease aged 44. Lewis was a bit more difficult and I ran into a dead end. The next in line was Elizabeth, whose engagement notice to Keith Bush I stumbled upon. The next lead was Elizabeth's death notice from 2008. Taking a punt I wrote to the retirement home mentioned in the notice and my letter was forwarded to her family who I've now been in contact with.
How the plaque left the family is a interesting post script. A relative of the person who sent the plaque to me was the lady in waiting to Lady MacGreagh. When she died she left the plaque and a copy of one of Margaret Loch Kiddle's books to the lady in waiting. With no link to the Kiddle family they asked me to return this item. Where Kiddle's medals are is unknown.
The returned medal tally is now 618.

 

Post update 19 July 2015 
Today I received the most surprising email from Martin of Melbourne. In part his email said:

Hi Glyn.

I googled Captain Geoffrey Kiddle and came across your blog. Thought you might be interested in this photo, which I took at Melbourne General Cemetery yesterday. I was looking for someone else's grave but military-related headstones, particularly WW1, always interest me.

regards,

Martin 

Thank you Martin, this is a great photo.

Post update 24 June 2017
I recently received this email from Anthony Kiddle:

'Geoffrey Kiddle is a relation of mine be it a distant one ... I have made it a mission of my mine to retrieve any medals issued to a relative that appear on the open market .. I notice you found his 'death plaque' and u states his medals are missing .. for your information I have recently recovered them on the open market and they are safely back in the family fold'.

Thank you for the update Anthony and for this photo. That is wonderful news.

 
 

Flying Officer Bruce Quist

These medals are being returned to the family of 286453 Flying Officer Bruce Quist who served in the RAAF during WWII. The medals came to me un-named and there is a very good explanation for this. After the war it took some years before medals were produced and issued. Each service was responsible for issuing to there own people. In an effort to not delay the process to long the RAAF issued medals un-named and asked that the medals be returned at a later date for engraving. Many veteran, having already waited so long chose not to return the medals or there was confusion as to who had received their medals.

FLG OFF Quist received his medals in late 1953 from the Department of Air. The photo shows the blank medals sent to me and and the scan shows his full entitlement.

The returned medal tally is now 617.

Contemporary Australian Medal - Kelvin Harvey

In December 09 I received the National Medal awarded to Kelvin Harold Harvey. I ran in to a problem immediately. As can be seen by the link itsanhonour has him listed as Kevin and the date engraved on the reverse is different to that on the website.

It took a fair bit of back tracking and through Yuku we narrowed the search down to a reference to Kelvin at Broken Hill. This made sense to me as the medal was sent to me via Peterborough SA. Armed with this link, Bill tracked down Kelvin who i still very much alive. I spoke to him tonight and he told me the medal had been stolen about 20 years ago and he is really looking forward to getting it back.

The returned medal tally is now 612.

QX49183 DUNCAN THOMAS MCGREGOR

QX49183 DUNCAN THOMAS MCGREGOR background was very difficult to piece together and the story following his death in 1966 was even harder to follow.
Following McGregor's death his wife married twice more. After her death in 2003, her third husband thought that McGregor's medals should go back to his family rather than being kept by someone who didn't know him at all.
That lead to yet another difficult search that tested everyone's research skill. That was until today when we tracked down McGregor's nephew and the medals will be returned to the family soon.
The returned medal tally is now 611.


The naming on this medal is a little unusual. It is slightly above centre on the edge rather than being right in the centre.

VX11935 Ernest Reginald Barton

VX11935 Ernest Reginald Barton proved to be a bit difficult to find. There wasn't much details from his service records to work with but this is what Bill and Yuku team pieced together.

Ernest was born at Broken Hill in 1906 and his mother was Florence Edith Hughes. His fathers name is unknown. After her first husband died Florence then Married Henry Edward Charles Bromwich at Broken Hill in 1912. They had one daughter, Mavis Jean, born in Sydney 1918 and died in Mudgee 1973. This makes Mavis the half sister of Ernest. Mavis Jean Bromwich married Alan Cecil Day in 1939 and they had two sons, Richard and Max.

Based on a bit of educated guest work I wrote to the a Max Day in Mudgee and he is the fellow we were looking for. Max is Ernest's closest relative and having spoken to him and his daughter tonight I know these medals are going to be well looked after.

The returned medal tally is now 608.

Sando

LAC Lionel Robins Sando was from South Australia and served in the RAAF during WWII. Like many others her didn't deploy overseas but provided valuable service to the war effort in Australia. His medal entitlement would have been the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945. The pictured medal is his ASM.
The returned medal tally is now 603.

Thank you for your comments

I thought it was well and truly time to thank all those who have put a comment on this blog. I really appreciate the feedback.
Unfortunately, I have also discovered that a few spammers have tried to hijack posts and place comments that lead the reader to suspicious websites. I've removed all these.
Glyn

Long Service and Good Conduct Medal

This medal has proved to be a bit out of the ordinary. It is the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal awarded to 1079 WO1A Arthur Joseph Thomas. The WO1A threw me at first. However, I have found out that there was previously two levels of WO1 based on certain qualifications and the higher (A) received more pay. Thomas was a draftsman in the Royal Australian Engineers which made him eligible for this higher grade.

Getting a lead on Thomas proved difficult. There is no listing for him for either WWI or WWII. One of my researchers, Morris from Queensland, found a record in the NAA and had it digitised for me. This proved to be invaluable. It is the application for Thomas to be commissioned in 1938. One piece of information proved to be the key for this search. Thomas' wife is named in the application (page 16). Her name was Elizabeth Gordon Thomas. While Arthur Joseph Thomas is quite common, the inclusion of Gordon in his wife's name is not. I was quickly able to find her death details. This meant Bill could narrow the search in the death notices and electoral rolls. The death notice gave the name of their daughter which in turn led to her two sons, Peter and John. I've spoken to Thomas' grandson Peter and I'll return the medal shortly.

The returned medal tally is now 602.

VX81773 Reg Day

Last Friday I was contacted by Glenn from Melbourne who had found a medal while demolishing a house. He asked me to start the research and he would send the medal to me. The medal is a WWII star awarded to VX81773 Reginald Francis Day.
I came across a 2001 entry on RootsWeb about Reg and tracked down the writer. Even though the entry was old he was able to provide me some great leads. His mother put me on to another relative who in turn put me in touch with Reg's nephew. Now here comes the best news, Reg is still alive.
I spent some time on the phone to Reg tonight and have arranged for Glenn to return the medal to him.
The returned medal tally is now 601.